Audio, video experts linking South Dakota firm buying longtime Topeka

Topeka Capital-Journal, The, Feb 3, 2005 by Michael Hooper Capital-Journal

DODGE ELECTRONICS

ANN WILLIAMSON/THE CAPITAL-JOURNAL

Ted Catlin, a technician with Dodge Electronics, welds a scoreboard for the Amarillo, Texas, Independent School District. Dodge Electronics has been sold to Daktonics, of Brookings, S.D., and will operate as Sportsound in Topeka.

Dean Dodge

will be division manager of Sportsound

By Michael Hooper

THE CAPITAL-JOURNAL

A South Dakota company that manufactures video screens for sports stadiums has purchased Dodge Electronics, of Topeka, company officials said Wednesday.

Daktronics Inc., of Brookings, S.D., maker of the video screens for the Super Bowl stadium in Jacksonville, Fla., purchased Dodge Electronics from Dean and Sherry Dodge earlier this winter. Daktronics will operate Dodge Electronics as Sportsound, and Dean Dodge is division manager.

Mark Steinkamp, spokesman for Daktronics, said the South Dakota company has had a relationship with Dodge Electronics for more than 10 years.

"We've always been the visual and they have always been the audio, so it made sense to join forces," Steinkamp said.

Neither buyer nor seller would disclose the sales price.

Dodge said all assets were sold except the 60,000-square-foot facility at 1345 S.W. 42nd, which the Dodges will retain and lease back to Daktronics.

Dodge Electronics, which has 12 employees, sells and installs audio systems in sports facilities. The Topeka company has installed audio systems at more than 70 Division I colleges, including The University of Kansas, Kansas State University and the University of Oklahoma.

Steinkamp said Daktronics would maintain a Topeka presence.

"It's probably logical that some of that manufacturing work will be moved up here," Steinkamp said.

Dodge Electronics has been providing audio and closed-circuit TV systems to schools, business and churches in northeast Kansas since 1973. Dodge's dad, Dwight Dodge, purchased Carroll Radio & TV, a wholesale parts house, in 1971. In 1997, Dodge Electronics separated from Dodge/Carroll Electronics, owned by Bob and Bev Radefeld. Dodge/ Carroll continues to operate at 1016 S.W. 6th.

Dodge, 49, said the sale "was the right opportunity. Financially, it seemed like the best direction for our company."

He said he wasn't retiring and would retain some operations in Topeka.

Daktronics, founded in 1968, has 1,600 employees, of which one- third are college students who work part time. Brookings is home to South Dakota State University. Daktronics has 40 sales and service offices in the United States and two in Europe.

Daktronics (Nasdaq: DAKT) is a publicly traded company whose stock closed Wednesday at $25.50 per share, up 75 cents or 3 percent. Daktronics' Oct. 30 balance sheet showed $1.2 million in debt, $17.8 million in cash and stockholder equity of $97.4 million, up 21 percent from $79.9 million in January 2004. At Wednesday's closing stock price, Daktronics was valued at $484 million, according to Yahoo Finance.